80 



CULINARY OR KITCHEN GARDEN. 



skinned, mealy, and in flavour resembling the 

 sweet chestnut. The Haricot d'Alger, Prague 

 bicolor, Prague jaspe, are varieties of the Prague 

 runner, the beans of all of which become soon 

 unfit for use. 



Insects and diseases. — These are the same as 

 those attacking the order leguminosse generally, 

 and the kidney bean in particular (which see). 

 The seed of all the runners cannot be depended 

 upon to vegetate above a year. Besides the in- 

 sects noticed in article Kidney Bean, all the 

 leguminosae are liable to the attacks of slugs and 

 snails, from the time they appear above ground 

 until they attain the height of a foot or so, after 

 which they seldom trouble them. Their de- 

 struction is simple : dusting the plants morning 

 and evening with caustic lime in powder, as re- 

 commended for pease, will soon rid the plants of 

 these pests. 



General remarks. — There have been few sub- 

 stitutes found for any of the leguminous plants 

 which are cultivated as articles of food. The 

 white lupin, Lupinus albus, has from the earliest 

 ages been extensively grown in Spain, Portugal, 



and Italy for the ripe seed, which is used in the 

 same manner that haricots are by the French. 



Several species of lentil are cultivated on the 

 Continent also for soups and haricots: these 

 are chiefly Ervum lens, the common lentil ; E. 

 Ervilia, the winter lentil ; Lathyrus sativus, the 

 Spanish lentil ; Cicer arietinum, the chick pea, 

 &c. Both lentils and lupins are cultivated in 

 Italy now, as they were in the days of Pliny, as 

 green manure, being ploughed or dug in when 

 they had attained their greatest size, but be- 

 fore they had formed their seed, in which 

 case it was supposed they would rob the 

 ground of more than they restored to it. This 

 remains a question for modern chemists to 

 solve. Pliny states that beans also were culti- 

 vated in the vicinity of Macedonia and Thessaly 

 for the avowed purpose of being dug into the 

 ground, and that this was done just as they 

 began to bloom. 



One lb. of liver-coloured kidney beans (which 

 sort is of medium size and weight) contains 792 

 beans. One lb. of scarlet runners contains 428 

 beans. 



